Lahore: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed its serious concern at the authorities’ failure to redress the grievance of the unlawfully expelled Ahmedi students of a Faisalabad college and urged firm action against the trouble-makers. In a statement issued today, Advocate Iqbal Haider, the HRCP Co-chairperson, said:

The rustication of 23 Ahmedi students of the Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad, early last month on the ground of their belief was apparently a case of extraordinary discrimination. HRCP therefore requested a senior member of its governing body to probe the matter. This inquiry shows that while rusticating the unfortunate students the college administration did not follow the rules prescribed for this extreme action; that the committee of teachers set up to examine the victims after the event included teachers who were in the body that had taken the decision to rusticate them; and that the few students who appeared before the investigating committee were unduly harassed and intimidated. There were also indications that some members of the faculty colluded with the Ahmedi-baiting trouble-makers.

HRCP is therefore seriously apprehensive of justice being denied to the unlawfully expelled students. It calls upon the provincial and federal governments both to intervene immediately to protect the wronged students and deal firmly with hate-preachers and disrupters of peace because much more than the career of Ahmedi students is at stake.